River quest

Citation

(2000), "River quest", Work Study, Vol. 49 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2000.07949aaf.001

River quest

River quest

Keywords Fibre optics, Civil engineering, Telecommunications

KPNQwest, the pioneering communications company that is investing more than 1 billion Euros in a pan-European fibre optic network, has completed a unique 1.2km crossing under the River Thames that will link London to the rest of Europe. The project is one of the most innovative civil engineering projects in the history of telecommunications and has resulted in the longest hole of its kind under the River Thames.

KPNQwest's fibre optic network required advances in drilling and construction techniques more familiar on North Sea oil platforms than on the Thames riverside. The resulting design and construction of the hole from Tilbury to Gravesend used a radar-guided drilling machine to bury 96 fibre optic links 60m under the Thames riverbed.

Although the approach chosen for this project is an expensive one, it was selected as the approach that would ultimately offer the highest level of service and network resilience. The KPNQwest approach to this project will ensure ultimate quality of service and reliability to its customers. Because KPNQwest has built the crossing 60m under the Thames, from Tilbury to Gravesend, they have secured a much safer route for its network than any other telecommunications company, investing extensively to avoid the danger of a cable being hit by one of the many construction projects carried out in central London at any one time. KPNQwest has also built an extremely high capacity point of presence (PoP) in the Docklands, allowing the capital's businesses and local cable companies to connect into the network.

Richard Howitt, Member of the European Parliament for the East of England, commented on the network:

Improved European and international communications are of enormous benefit to UK business, education and family life. The advanced fibre optic network being completed by KPNQwest will lead British communications into the next millennium.

Jack McMaster, KPNQwest's CEO, commented:

As we enter the next millennium it is interesting to note the continued importance of the River Thames to British and continental commerce. However, the way in which that commerce is being conducted is undergoing a fundamental shift in the new information era - in the next millennium it is conceivable that more information, albeit electronic, will be carried in one day on our laser channel lying 60m beneath the Thames than has been carried on the river itself during the entire 20th century.

The company is building a 13,000km Internet protocol-based network to service customers in the key business centres throughout Europe. Customers for the company include multi-national and other firms world-wide that want integrated voice, data and image communications; and other communications companies that need to buy wholesale network capacity.

With 14 European business centres now served by the most modern, macro-capacity 96-strand fibre optic network operating at 10Gbps across 80 colours, Internet and e-commerce applications are becoming truly enabled by the higher quality and greater speed provided by KPNQwest.

Primed and future-proofed for data and IP, services will include:

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  IP-based voice communications;

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  high-speed Internet access;

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  intranets;

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  extranets and Web hosting;

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  IP-based virtual private networks; and

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  ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and IP transit services for the wholesale market.

KPNQwest is equally owned by KPN and Qwest. The new company brings together the state-of-the-art fibre-optic networks of the two partners and the Internet services expertise and customer base of EUnet International and Xlink Gmbh, Europe's second largest pan-European ISP. The company has 650 employees formerly employed by KPN INS and EUnet/Xlink International. The company plans to build and operate a high-capacity European fibre optic, Internet Protocol-based network that now covers 3,500km and will span 13,000km when it is completed in 2001. This network will interconnect with Qwest's 29,500km fibre-optic network in the USA. KPNQwest will offer a full range of broadband and IP-based communications services.